Earlier this month, the pop saviour born Héloïse Letissier and more commonly known as Christine and the Queens got extremely vulnerable with the release of her single “People, I’ve been sad”. Production might have been minimal, but the synth-heavy song was packed full of feelings, with lyrics relaying how she had been in a bad place, but ultimately found strength in her situation. Well, now that you’ve had a couple of weeks to ruminate on her words (both the English and French, naturally) she’s got a treat for you: Christine just released a surprise new EP, La vita nuova, and a completely brilliant short film — shot by Colin Solal Cardo and choreographed by Ryan Heffington — to go with it.
We join Christine on the rooftop of Paris’ historic Opéra Garnier. It’s golden hour and she’s gazing at the horizon before dancing — as you’d expect — across the roof, way above her city, to the aforementioned single. Suddenly, she’s having an intimate dance battle with a Baphomet-like mythical creature that ultimately sends her falling down, down further still and right into a new song. “Je disparais dans tes bras” (I disappear in your arms) is more upbeat and Christine is smiling at the heart of an incredible group of dancers rehearsing in a studio. Things take a turn for the sexy, and soon the creature is there with her again and he’s biting her fucking throat. Her confessional lyrics — “you say you love me but now I doubt it/ because you’re after something you can’t have” — suggest a toxic relationship.
Cut to Christine centre stage, alone save for a boom operator, performing the EP’s third track “Mountains (we met)” in a shirt with really great ruffles. As the red-eyed creature watches on, she spins in the baroque auditorium before collapsing. Newly tinted in red, Christine awakens to the sound of track four, “Nada”, and the lyrics “never back again” repeating like some kind of mantra. Vowing to never let something come back again… her low mood? That negativity? A certain individual?
With it, she draws the life out of the creature and drags its lifeless body before her now party-ready dancers and launches into the title track. She’s conquered it, she’s adopted its red eyes, and she’s eager to grind all up on Caroline Polachek. A meeting of queens! Things escalate very quickly now and Christine turns vampiric, sucking Caroline’s blood and sprouting the horns of the devil creature she just disposed of. Wow. What an adventure. Gonna tell my kids this was Homer’s Odyssey.
La vita nuova is available digitally now via Because Music, and physically on 10 April.